This site is dedicated to Peter J. McDonald's
memoryas it was a very important project for
him to have placed onlinefor all to search their roots from Scotland
to Australia.

The emigration organised by the Highland
and Island Emigration Society in the 1850's was the last substantial chapter
in the story of the Clearances. This society represented a short-term
response to a specific problem in a particular geographical area.
The potato blight which brought on the Great Famine in Ireland earlier
in the decade, struck the Isles and western Highlands in 1846. Sir
Charles Trevelyan, Assistant Secretary of the Treasury, became very interested
in the problems of the Highlands. He properly saw emergency food
supplies as a "useless palliative". He wrote to the Sheriff Substitute
of Skye, Thomas Fraser, concerning the necessity of adopting a final measure
of relief for the Western Highlands and Islands by transferring the surplus
of the population to Australia. Trevelyan was joined in his concern
and planning by two other distinguished civil servants, Sir John McNeill
and Sir Thomas Murdoch. These three were the backbone of the HIES
in London although it is clear that much credit for the plan belongs to
Thomas Fraser.

The support given to this project by the British
public is amply demonstrated by the list of benefactors. Queen Victoria
gave £300, Prince Albert £105, three Scots Dukes £100
each, and various Members of Parliament, Anglican clergy, the Australian
Agricultural Company, Mr Rothschild and many other prominent persons headed
the list. The Scheme ran from 1852 to 1857 and brought 4910 men,
women and children from the Western Isles and western Highlands, mainly
from Skye but the other areas were Harris, North Uist, Ardnamurchan, Morven,
Strathaird, Raasay, Iona and St Kilda.The passage was not easy, either. The Georgiana
experienced a mutiny by a gold-hungry crew, the Hercules has cases of smallpox,
the Priscilla experienced many deaths from fever, and typhus broke out
on the Ontario.

Taken from "The Scots in Australia – A Study
of New South Wales, Victoria and Queensland, 1788-1900" by Malcolm D Prentis.

Footnote:It must be remembered that all of the Emigrants
assisted by the HIES were travelling under the scheme laid down by "Her
Majesty's Colonial Land and Emigration Commissioners" who charted the HIES
ships and in most cases selected the emigrants. Mr Chant, the emigration
officer mentioned in HIES records was an employee of the Australian Land
Commissioners. They received their funds from the Colonial Government selling
Crown Land in Australia.Bill Clarke